State Police confirm to WBTA News that 20 cats have now been returned to Wyoming County’s SPCA animal shelter – many less than the over 450 that were found there under "deplorable conditions" in a raid earlier this month.

The cats were returned after Erie County’s SPCA was unable to adopt them out. State Police Investigator Ken Dubrinski tells WBTA News that 20 cats was a number he believed the Wyoming County shelter could responsibly handle.

The facility in Attica was cleaned during the police investigation, so it is inhabitable.

Dubrinski says it was not in the hands of the law to close the facility, since it is a non-profit private corporation. That remains to be decided by the SPCA's board of directors.